What’s Going on with Bar Exams?

Posted on June 6, 2026

It is nearly bar exam season. Even though some of us never thought we would see the day, the bar exam is changing. Here’s how.

Bar exams have been a requirement for lawyers from what seems like the beginning of time. However, there are some new developments in the last few years that you need to know about. It seems very clear now that the content of bar exams, and even the requirement for them, is changing.

After complaints about the content of bar exams from a variety of sources, the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) has redesigned the bar exam — for the first time in 25 years. That revision is known as the NextGenBar exam, and, as of May 2026, it has been adopted by 45 of the 56 jurisdictions which require passage of a bar exam for practice certification.

According to the NCBE, there is a phased roll-out of the NextGen bar exam that is currently underway. The first phase will be administered in July 2026 and the last phase after 2028. The schedule is as follows:

• July 2026 (Launch): CT, GU, ID, MD, MO, NMI, OR, PW, VI, WA.
• July 2027: AZ, IA, KY, MN, NE, NM, ND, OK, SD, TN, VT, WV, WY.
• February 2028: DE, DC, IL.
• July 2028: AL, AK, CO, FL, GA, HI, IN, KS, ME, MA, MI, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SC, TX, UT, VA, WI.
• TBD: MS.

As I understand it, the new model is not as top heavy on memorization of the elements of causes of action and the minute requirements of civil procedure as bar exams of the past. Apparently there has been recognition that those are the kinds of details that any lawyer would be a fool not to research and update to avoid malpractice, and the new version will include more emphasis on logical reasoning. So, all of us who suffered through the old version and its emphasis on details should get together for a mass Pity Party.

And for another twist on the subject of bar exams, keep your eye on which jurisdictions are now allowing lawyers to skip the bar exam altogether. What once was a lone exception to the rule, the State Bar of Wisconsin for many years has allowed graduates of Wisconsin’s two law schools the privilege of practicing law in the State of Wisconsin without passing the state’s bar exam. This is known as Diploma Privilege, and there are now additional jurisdictions formulating their own similar exceptions, like apprenticeships for example, as substitutes for bar passage.

Also, as of 2026, four states allow a person to take the bar exam without attending law school. Those states are California, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. In lieu of law school graduation, these states require “Reading the Law,” a structured law office study program or apprenticeship under the supervision of a practicing attorney or judge. The requirements of these four jurisdictions that allow reading the law differ by state. In addition, the state of New York allows an individual to take the bar exam with only one year of law school combined with three years of law office study. And, if you pass the bar exam of a particular state, you are licensed to practice in that state but not others.

To all of you recent law school graduates, good luck on the bar exam. I hope this Next Gen Bar exam yields better reviews and more favorable results.

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Heads Up! Fraudsters May Be Tracking You

Posted on May 29, 2026

I regret to report that I have been targeted again by phishers and fraudsters on the Internet. It is a really disturbing and uncomfortable experience, and it can become serious if you fail to pay close attention to unsolicited emails and offers and continue to communicate with the senders.

I had forgotten how disturbing it is to be targeted in this way, and I now know that the phishers and fraudsters are getting very sophisticated. In my case, they purport to be very interested in my books and accurately reference some of the content. They sound very legitimate UNTIL a close look at the wording of the email discloses the voice of AI, which draws from content on websites and other personal information sources in the public domain.

Many of these phishers and fraudsters are assuming false identities and are using the names and titles of other people. So a search on Linkedin or Facebook or your other search tool of choice will confirm the identity of the person the email sender purports to be and can lure you into a false state of security. You feel like you have done your due diligence, but it is not enough.

You need to take additional steps. You need to check the email address of the sender and compare it with the email address of the actual person you have discovered in your search. If the emails are different, it should be a huge red flag that you are dealing with someone who has stolen an identity.

And if the email includes a photo of the sender, compare that photo with the photo you found on Facebook or another search source. If the photos are different, you have further proof that someone wants to do you harm. And if there is no photo on the email, a Zoom call will accomplish the same verification — or lack of it.

The bottom line is that you absolutely must not send money or your work product or anything else you value to these people. I know of one lawyer, someone I respect very much, who did that, and lived to regret it. Lawyers are vulnerable to flattery just like anyone else.

This kind of fraud is running rampant today. Get the protections you need and be diligent. And if you are attacked by someone who has stolen an identity, report it to the victim of the identity theft. And to law enforcement. This is very serious stuff.

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Are You a Member of the Sandwich Generation?

Posted on May 16, 2026

As we celebrated Mothers Day last weekend, I was thinking of all the lawyer-moms, and the lawyer-dads, as well, who are not only caretakers for their children but also primary caretakers for their aged parents or other family members. Known as the “Sandwich Generation,” it can be a very heavy lift. The logistical demands as well as the physical and mental demands can be very weighty.

Approximately 23 per cent of Americans are classified as part of the Sandwich Generation, and they are involved in a balancing act that they probably did not anticipate. As lawyers, we already have enough of a balancing act just taking care of our professional responsibilities and the needs of our nuclear families, and adding even more responsibilities gets very complicated. The responsibilities of caring for an aging parent may involve being an advocate and also managing legal, medical and emotional issues from a distance. The combination of managing all of this and the needs of your own family can lead to burnout and anxiety, flavored with a large dose of guilt from time to time. And it also can take a physical toll and lead to exhaustion. So taking care of your own health has to be a priority.

One of the most valuable lessons any member of the Sandwich Generation can learn is the importance of delegation. It can be accomplished through hiring outside staff to help with the aging parent or other relative and also delegating as much as possible at the office. Many of us are not good at delegating in our professional lives, and this is a time to improve that skill. Technology also can be your friend in these situations. It can help you with remote meetings with doctors and other support staff and also to connect on a more regular and meaningful way with your loved one via FaceTime and other similar programs. I remember well discovering a machine that operating over the telephone lines and would transmit my email to my aging mother miles away AND print it for her. I sent an email to mom as the last thing I did every night before going to sleep, and when she died I found them all safely tucked away in boxes in her closet.

Another issue is the financial drain of being in the Sandwich Generation. If you are a person who is already struggling financially to care for your own family, adding financial responsibilities for another person or persons can be a game changer. It can force you to change your priorities against your will.

We all love our aging relatives, and we want to help them through the difficult years at the ends of their lives. However, we need help ourselves. The essential legal documents for these situations can help with some of the burden. Make sure you have the proper powers of attorney and health care directives. There are also several kinds of trusts that can help those in the Sandwich Generation to manage assets for a loved one as well. You need to sit down with your estate planning lawyer to get the help you need. The sooner, the better so that you are prepared when the time comes.

Hats off to all the lawyer-moms and lawyer-dads who are dealing with these issues today. It is not easy for you.

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Thank Goodness for May

Posted on May 8, 2026

According to T.S. Elliot in his landmark modernist poem The Wasteland, April is the cruellest month. So I am very glad to have it behind us. I much prefer May. And May is a big month for law students.

3Ls will graduate with the expectation of starting at a law firm or other legal venues in the Fall. First and second year students will go off to internships or summer associate positions. It will be a whole new world for all of them. They will be entering new territory with new rules and expectations. It will be very exciting for sure, with new possibilities to explore. It also will take some preparation to enter those new environments and succeed from Day One.

According to my readers, that preparation is all included in my book New Lawyer Launch: The Handbook for Young Lawyers (Full Court Press, 2023). I hope you will get a copy and prepare yourself. From chapters on “Getting Off to a Strong Start”, “Establishing Work Priorities,” “Being Sensitive to Office Politics” “Protecting Your Work Product” to “Being a Valuable Team Member” and so much more, it is all there, waiting for you. You can read a few chapters for free on Amazon, so give it a try.

Of course, you could do it yourself without a mentor or guide. However, on the job training can be painful. Why put yourself through that? Especially when you can get the lay of the land and advice from those who have done it and succeeded, from the respected group of contributors that I have assembled for you in The Handbook. They are practicing lawyers, and their advice is invaluable.

The truth is that law firms and other law practice venues can be scary places without adequate preparation. I think we all can agree that law school and bar prep courses cannot provide the practical skills that will become critical to your success or lack of success in unfamiliar territory. And that is not a criticism of law schools. They can barely squeeze all the new developments in the law into three years as it is.

So, for what it is worth, let The Handbook for Young Lawyers be your guide. It is a good place to start, but it is not the complete story. Stay tuned for what comes next. The profession has gone through important changes and transitions since the handbook was published, and so much has happened in the interim. I am working on an update to The Handbook so I will have you covered. Keep an eye out for it later this year.

You can read excerpts from The Handbook on Amazon. Give it a try!

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It’s Not Always About The Money

Posted on April 30, 2026

When we think of work, we think of compensation. The two go hand in hand for most of us. It is how we traditionally measure value, and we like to be rewarded for our efforts. But, some of the best opportunities come with no financial gain, and those opportunities should not be missed.

Throughout the near 20-year life of the Best Friends at the Bar project, I have given 100+ speeches and programs throughout the country and abroad. And many of them were given for no compensation whatsoever. I also wrote many articles for mainstream legal media and was a monthly columnist at the ABA Journal — all for free. Freebies take just as much time and effort as compensable work.

I would not blame you if you are wondering what on earth I am talking about. I can assure you that it was never that I did not know my value. Rather, it was because I took the long view. I knew that offering something for free provided the opportunity for me to engage with future audiences and acquire dedicated readers.

For you, it likely is different. Most of you are practicing lawyers and are accustomed to being paid for your time and effort. But, there are circumstances when those rules do not apply. One of those circumstances is business promotion — that thing that creates anxiety in most of you because you see it as too daunting, too awkward or too uncomfortable. So, you shy away from it. You put it off. You convince yourself that self-promotion is bad and distasteful and below you.

However it does not have to be that way. There is a new way of thinking about business promotion. It is now considered “old school” to come right out and ask a prospect for work. The hard sell model died somewhere around the dawn of The Millennium. The preferred approach today is much more subtle.

Here’s how it works. If you identify a business prospect, and AFTER you run a current client check in your firm to make sure that you are not encroaching on someone else’s turf, develop a casual relationship with the prospect that might include meeting for coffee or lunch. Discuss your lives and your work, with casual references to your practice and your firm. Afterwards when you see information that might be helpful in the prospect’s work, send it in an email. It’s still a pitch, but the kinder and gentler variety.

Business promotion is a jog not a marathon, and it has to develop over time It is an investment in people, relationships and reputation.. You need to be patient, yet also persistent in your own mind, to combat the procrastination. If it is meant to be, that approach will result in the call you have been waiting for.

And, most important, enjoy the hunt. All of your efforts will not pay off, but you only need a few successes to get the attention of the powers that be in your firm. And, when that happens, it suddenly becomes all about the money!

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Keeping Work-Life Balance in Perspective

Posted on April 23, 2026

I have learned along the way that work-life balance really has little to do with balance. It is all about priorities in the moment and hoping for some equilibrium over time. One week the priorities will be weighted more toward life and home and the next week the priorities will be weighted in the opposite direction. Work for lawyers is not a nine-to-five job, and equal treatment and true balance cannot be expected at all times. It is a struggle.

Throughout the struggle, we never can forget the importance of family. I was reminded of that last weekend at our Blakely family gathering in beautiful Virginia, with fly-ins from abroad by our State Department cousins. And, in July, the Smith family will convene in Montana for some fun on the ranch and catching up with the fly fishing contingent from Argentina. We always work like mad in the weeks leading up to the these events so that we can give our full attention to our loved ones while we are with them. Yet, we recognize that it doesn’t always work out that way.

In my book, The New Balance for Today’s Woman Lawyer, I offer a multitude of assists to help lawyer/moms achieve as close to a reasonable balance as possible. But I know how difficult that can be, and I do not make judgments. However, when I do hear something that sounds off kilter, I call it out.

For example, recently I read a response by a newly-minted woman law partner when she was asked “How do you juggle being a working mom?” Her response was “Sometimes things drop. Sometimes you’re going to miss things. Sometimes you’re going to miss a child’s birthday party, maybe even your own child’s.” Although I did not disagree with her, I also was pretty sure that it was the “tough” response she was after and that she had little experience sacrificing such important events. If she had, her response would have been much more thoughtful and would have acknowledged that choices like that can break a parent’s heart even if it is the right choice.

I have some experience with that. I missed my own child’s 4th birthday party because I was preparing for a trial that started the following day. I did not wear it as a badge of courage or talk about it as an example of how dedicated I was to the practice of law. I knew that sometimes you cannot avoid it, that stuff happens and clients depend on you. It does not mean that you do not love your child, but a sacrifice like that also should not be taken lightly.

So, if you had asked me that same question “How do you juggle being a working mom?” I would have answered without the bravado but with a recognition that the choices can be very, very hard. But we must be prepared to make them.

You notice that I did not say which child’s birthday party I missed. I will let my two kids duke it out over who mom loves the most. Is it the corporate lawyer or the prosecutor? I am happy to be a mere bystander on that one!

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What’s Up With My Books?

Posted on April 16, 2026

My books for young lawyers are getting a lot of attention these days. That’s definitely good news for me, and it also may be good news for many of you.

The Best Friends at the Bar book series is part of a mentoring program for young lawyers that I founded after I retired from law practice in 2006. The early books focus on the challenges for women lawyers, and the later books were written with all young lawyers in mind.

My most recent book is New Lawyer Launch: The Handbook for Young Lawyers. Here is what readers are saying about it.

“You have offered young lawyers a steady hand as they navigate the sometimes treacherous waters between graduation and a fulfilling career. You have touched real lives, real young attorneys who have walked into their first firms or courtrooms with a little more confidence because of the practical advice you have shared.”

“New Lawyer Launch is a handbook for the moment law school leaves off and real professional life begins. The transition from law school to professional practice is one of the most disorienting career shifts in any profession, and the handbook addresses it with foundational, timeless advice from contributors with strong mentorship backgrounds.”

“New Lawyer Launch matters for the first year associate sitting alone in an office at nine in the evening wondering if he or she is doing everything wrong. It matters to the law student about to cross the stage and step into a profession that gave them no roadmap for what comes next. And it matters to every young attorney who has ever needed a mentor and did not know where to find one.”

So, if you think you would benefit from that kind of help, I hope you get your hands on the book sooner rather than later. Some of you are getting ready to cross that law school graduation stage and others of you are entry-level lawyers in firms or government or corporate settings and feeling insecure about how to proceed successfully in a demanding profession. For others, gifting this book to a young lawyer is sure to be appreciated.

You never will regret becoming a Best Friend at the Bar and helping yourself or another young lawyer avoid the pitfalls of law practice while setting a strong foundation for a successful and satisfying career in the law.

What Millennial Lawyers Want: A Bridge from the Past to the Future of Law Practice is also very popular with young lawyers today, including Gen Z lawyers. That book includes lessons learned from my own mentor and challenge questions about how those lessons relate to your own experiences.

My books are available from Amazon or from the publisher on the Best Friends at the Bar website at www.bestfriendsatthebar.com.

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What’s Good Today?

Posted on April 9, 2026

This week the New York Times included information about a woman whose small child had suffered a life-threatening illness, and the mother was fortunate to have good friends who checked in with her daily. Her friends decided that asking her “How are you today?” was completely inappropriate because they knew that she never was going to be anything but sad and depressed as long as her child was suffering. So, the friends decided on a different approach. Instead of “How are you today?” the greeting became “What is good today?”

That approach has many other applications in our lives in these uncertain times. So many people, including many of you young lawyers, are upset, angered, and threatened by the state of the world these days. They wake up every morning to news outlets reporting the dismal state of events, and they fuel their upset, angered and threatened minds without finding many things to change that outlook for the remainder of the day.

I interface with young lawyers a lot, and I know how worried many of you are about your futures right now. So many of you are worried about your professional futures in a country where the rule of law is being challenged on a daily basis, where the Department of Justice has been decimated, where the Executive Branch is attacking law firms and judges, where lawyers are losing jobs in our federal government in record numbers, and where job insecurity could easily spread to the private sector. Many of you accrued serious debt to attend law school, and now the state of the economy does not hold very good news for the present or the future. It is a lot, and it is a tough time to be starting a career.

You must find ways to deal with these difficult times. You may need help and be willing to ask for it, or you may be in a position to help others in despair. Helping others is the gift you give yourself, and these days we all could use a little something tied up with a big red bow to get through the day.

Most important of all, be good to yourself. It may be challenging for you right now, but you are up to the challenge. You have proven yourself in so many ways that you need to remember, and law school has prepared you to get up and try again. Your education and your training as critical thinkers will become very important during these trying times to help put things in perspective and to keep you on steady ground. Lawyers are problem solvers, and we know that there are many different ways to look at a set of even bad facts and fashion a positive response. Use your unique skills to get through the tough times.

We may be in for the long haul, so pace ourselves. You want to be ready to grab the first brass ring of opportunity that comes your way when the clouds part. And you can’t do that by staring at the ground.

So, I say to you, “What’s good today?” I am confident you can find something.

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